Art Gallery Tenmoku Ware Pottery Exhibition Corner

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โอซาก้า

Art Gallery Tenmoku Ware Pottery Exhibition Corner

Period Permanent exhibition

Venue Sixth floor Art Gallery, Osaka Store

A permanent exhibition corner featuring “Tenmoku ware pottery” has been opened in the sixth floor Art Gallery at the Takashimaya Osaka Store. The works of famous Japanese potters will be on display, focusing on sake cups.

Tenmoku chawan, or Tenmoku tea bowls, refers to iron-glazed tea bowls that were created in Jianyao in Shuiji, Jianyang District, Fujian Province of China. These bowls were used in Zen temples on Mt. Tianmu in Zhejiang Province during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The name “tenmoku” originates in the Kamakura Period in Japan (1185-1333), during which Buddhist monks from Japan traveled to Zen temples on Mt. Tianmu in China to study. Upon their return to Japan they brought back with them Jian ware pottery that was used in those temples in China. “Tianmu” in Chinese is pronounced “tenmoku” in Japanese, and so it was that it became customary to call these tea bowls from Mt. Tianmu as Tenmoku tea bowls. There are various representative styles of Tenmoku tea bowls, including Yohen Tenmoku, Yuteki Tenmoku, Haikatsugi Tenmoku, and Nogime Tenmoku.

Especially, Yohen Tenmoku is considered to be the highest quality style and there are said to be only four surviving examples remaining in the world today, in the ownership of Ryokoin, Seikaido Bunko Art Museum, Fujita Museum, and the Miho Museum. Three of these are inscribed as national treasures, while the bowl of the Miho Museum is classified as an important cultural asset. The Yohen Tenmoku tea bowls are based on a black glaze, but on the inside of the bowls is a speckled pattern of differing sized spots that look almost like stars. These speckles gleam with iridescent haloes of color, which vary depending on the angle and lighting conditions from blue to blue-purple, to vivid lapis lazuli. Their stunning patterns are also said to be like, “viewing the galaxy aglow with stars in one bowl”. *As these are popular items, your understanding is requested if they are sold out.